Outtakes for The Selkie Man
by DarkBlueBella
Summary: 3 outtakes for The Selkie Man
1. Outtake for Chapter 8

Slightly revised from the original outtake I used. Thank you to dellaterra for her beta work.

SM still owns.

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Edward made his way down the steep path to the beach, the ground beneath his feet strewn with tough sea grass and sand. He reflected on their conversation and smiled to himself. Bella's enquiries had been a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. He was pleased she was forming her own questions, pulling apart the beliefs and understandings she had always taken for granted. And he had known she would start asking questions; he just hadn't known if they would be the right ones. At the memory of her wide and startled eyes, her expression a mixture of curiosity and astonishment, her eyebrows furrowed and her breath held tight in her chest, he smiled again. There was more he could have told her, but she had heard more than enough to mull over, more than enough to start her mind down avenues she had not yet explored. She was beginning to consider possibilities: like someone turning the pages of a strange, new book, she was opening her mind to a dimension as yet undiscovered.

He reached the sea's edge and breathed in a deep lungful of the briny air. Home was waiting, but he was also loath to leave Bella. She was safe in the cottage – he knew that much – but still, he didn't like the act of leaving her, the separation. He had waited a long time for her, and now that she was here, it was taking all of his reserves to be patient and to wait for her to trust him, to ask for him, with her body and mind. There would be secrets yet between them, but he would know her, her desires, her needs. He had had a long life, not unhappy, but marred perhaps by the dissatisfaction of never feeling complete, not finding an enduring love that made him happy. Now, Bella Swan was here, from so far away, from a foreign land where she had known nothing of the selkies and peedie folk. The future was uncertain. Would she stay? Would she stay when she knew everything? It was too early to know. He could only hope that the signs he had seen so far were right and Bella was the curious and dauntless woman he thought her to be, even if she didn't know it yet herself.

Edward scanned the horizon, looking for the faint outlines of distant islands. They were there, whether the eyes of others could see them or not. There were things he knew, knowledge he possessed, answers he held, that Bella would want. In time he would have to tell her everything, no matter the cost. But for now, what she knew was enough. And what she would discover... Well, it was like giving her some puzzle pieces and waiting for her to fit them together. As he waded into the sea, he wondered when she would remember, or realise, that Sule Skerry was the very same island where her long-lost relative, Charles, had disappeared.


	2. Outtake for Chapter 12

Thank you to dellaterra for her beta work. SM still owns.

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A summons to attend a meeting with the elders was not uncommon, but never something to be taken lightly. Edward received the news grimly, knowing that he would be asked to explain himself and his actions. Not only had he involved himself with an American visitor but he had attacked a man known to many of the islanders. And of course, dealing with James had meant he'd had to involve others as well. Peter and Garrett had helped to transport an unconscious James to Kirkwall while Edward went back to attend to a shocked and stricken Bella. And now they must all answer for their deeds of two nights previous.

As he completed his journey to the meeting place, he reflected on how he did not regret a single decision he had made. Men like James deserved to be held accountable for the misery they inflicted on others. Edward had witnessed the cruel deeds of humans all too often and was only too glad to help mete out some justice. Edward was not unconfident about justifying his actions and his reasons behind them. His reputation spoke for him; he was a trusted member of his community and had freedom to make his own decisions and choices. Falling in love with Bella Swan was, however, a small complication.

It had happened before, of course, that one of his kind had fallen in love with a human. It rarely ended well, but Edward could not bear to contemplate leaving her when he had only just found her. Deserting her simply wasn't an option. Even if it took all night, he would argue his case and demand the right to try, the right to choose a life with her.

As he reached his destination, he sighed and squared his shoulders. Edward thought of Bella waiting for him in her garden, disorientated by his revelations and now by his absence. He didn't want to spend the night in an elders' meeting when he could be spending it with her. But one night of separation would be worth it, if it meant a chance of many more nights and days with Isabella Swan.


	3. Outtake for Chapter 19

**Edward travels home to convince the elders to let him give the Odin Stone to the trolls, but his past rises up to haunt him.**

This was written for the No Kid Hungry fundraiser. Thank you again to dellaterra for her beta work. Any mistakes are mine. SM still owns.

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The halls of Finfolkaheem gleamed with a luminous light, a soft glimmer unlike anything Edward could recall on the land. There, the light was bright and harsh, with nothing to filter out the glare of the sun's rays that had travelled for millions of miles to reach the land. Nothing unless you counted the grey dreich clouds that scudded across the Orkney skies, sometimes whipped away by the strong wind, only to be replaced with others, darker and water laden, sometimes reluctant to move at all. That light was dull, unwelcoming.

But none of that mattered now that he had found Bella Swan.

There was no need to pay any regard to the size, shape or colour of the clouds, worry about the splatter of rain upon his face or turn from the sun's glint, now that Bella was in his life. Bella Swan had become his only consideration, as if he were a satellite in her orbit. In the short while since she had settled into the cottage overlooking the beach he had scarcely moved his thoughts from her, and barely considered his previous life in Finfolkaheem. And yet she could only have guessed at the depth of what he felt and how far he was prepared to change the shape of his world for her.

"Anither land woman caught ye in her grasp," came a voice to interrupt his thoughts as he waited for the elders to receive him. The voice was light and teasing, but Edward knew the truth. Hurt and bitterness still bubbled up from a well-hole they both knew was there. Aye, and malice too, buried down deep yet ever present.

"Tanya," he greeted her, his voice smooth and calm. No point ruffling her, and anyway this was a familiar game, a well-worn path they often took together. He smiled at her, a smile that said _Do yer worst – I'll tak it._ She smiled back at him, a smile that said _Just try me._

She moved closer and leaned her body toward him, as if she were about to touch him the way a lover would. But she stopped a hair's breadth away from this transgression and lowered her voice to whisper, "Shame, Edward, to be caught by such an ordinary girl."

Red anger rose up and boiled over in him but he kept his face a mask. He left the smile on his lips, even tried to relax it a little so it did not look as if he was forcing it to stay there. But he wanted to tear it from his face and cast it to the ground, then rip the supercilious smile from her face and grind it into the floor under their feet.

Tanya knew it too as she brushed past him and walked away, swaying her hips in the way she knew had driven him crazy years before, when he was in love with her. Well, in love with the _idea_ of her.

The ocean had been their playground. As children they swam in the cold, clear waters around Hether Blether, racing up the sand and jumping from the small cliff-face back into the seafoam. The air was full of their shrieks and laughter but they were safe, protected from the outside world by the charm cast by their people over their small enclave. The thick sea-mists made it a private existence where their only trouble was racing each other and not being last. They were inseparable, like two creatures fashioned from the same mould, two halves from the same ancient fossil, carved by time and split open so they could be set free. They pulled each other's hair, poked each other until they were breathless with giggling, fell asleep with arms tangled, their bodies like two spoons in a drawer.

But as they grew, there came the day when Edward felt more than childish love for Tanya. Their bodies outgrew their innocence. Gone were the giggles and playful games. They found each other watching from the corner of their eyes, turning quickly away, wishing to be undiscovered. It was easier to swim away than to deal with the rush of new feelings that pulsed through their veins.

This limbo continued. Edward grew sick with love and lust for her, the need to be near her, the all-consuming power of desire he felt for her. She became aware of his infatuation, his eyes that followed her, watching her every move. She began to test this devotion, at first in tiny, inconsequential moves. She would leave a room, letting her long hair trail over his hands as she passed him, and wait around a bend in the corridor, just to see if he would follow her. She would yawn and stretch, tilting her chest and letting her breasts rise up, just to see his eyes smoulder as if there were a heat behind them. She would lean forward to kiss him goodnight, let her lips linger fractionally longer than she needed to, and leave him, dry-mouthed and stationary as a statue.

Yes, Edward was in love with her, and she was in love with the power it gave her.

This dance between the fish and the fisherman continued with Tanya reeling him closer whenever she chose. Edward lived for glimpses of her lithe figure, graceful on the land and utterly transformed in the sea. He watched her walk, dance, swim, always just out of reach, just beyond his grasp. She would appear like a mirage in front of him, with her long, gossamer blonde hair, a cascade of curls on land, a golden halo underwater. Whenever he got close, she spiralled away in a different direction. Whenever they were in the company of others, she became demure and shy, refusing to meet his eyes. Whenever he tried to speak to her, she changed the subject or refused to answer his question. Years he waited and years she played this game of tempting him with the one thing she knew he wanted and wouldn't let him have. And yet he didn't guess that he was a pawn in her game. He waited and waited, because he believed that she was waiting too.

The wait ended one dark, stormy day when they found themselves alone. They were sent to gather mussels and found themselves the only figures on the seashore. Edward could contain his feelings no more. He threw down the bucket, scattering the small, purple-black shells across the wet sand and turned her round to face him.

"Tanya," he implored. "Ye ken ma feelings for ye."

She yanked her arm away with impatience. Her eyes became like gimlets, trying to bore a hole into his stare.

"I will ne'er love ye, Edward," she stated, her voice cold. But she had the grace to look unhappy about telling him the facts.

"Ye are lying!" he countered, willing her to admit she had told him an untruth.

"I am no lying!" was her retort. "I'll no marry ye. I'll marry a land man, nae matter the cost."

Edward dropped his hand from her, the dream ripped in two, the guts of him wrenched and battered. "Ye cannae believe that nonsense!" he stammered. "Tis just a legend for the land folk tae believe. A land man will nae keep ye bonny!"

"I'll marry who I want!" she answered him, breaking free and running to the sea. Before she disappeared into the waves, she added another declaration, a death knell to his devotion. "I dinnae love ye. I was ne'er going tae marry ye."

He wanted to run after her, reason with her, but he did not. Adrenaline had evaporated, replaced by despair. She believed the old myth that marrying a mortal man would allow her to keep her looks. She was willing to sacrifice him, for a man who believed only in his life on the land and understood only one dimension of this world.

He stood back and said nothing as she chose Benjamin. She lured him from a rocky outcrop where he was sent to watch some hardy sheep who fed on the grass and did not mind the strong northerly wind. She brought him to Finfolkaheem and there he lived a long life, remembering barely anything of his existence before. Edward watched as he became an old man while Tanya stayed youthful. But this was no reward for her decision. Her life span was always destined to be different from her human husband's, and Edward stifled the urge to mutter as much to her under his breath when their paths crossed. For her part, she held her head high and met his eye as little as possible. When they shared a glance she looked defiant.

Tanya became a widow when Benjamin came to the end of his natural life. Before long she stopped avoiding Edward's presence. She appeared wherever he went, shaking her long hair down her back, laughing in a sweet, girlish voice. She swam in front of him, letting her fingertips brush his chest as she went. She looked behind to see if she had his attention.

She did, but not for the reasons she hoped.

Edward had discovered other women. His love for Tanya had faded and become like a creased and dog-eared photograph. It was part of his past, he had realised, but no part of his future. And when he began to live his life with Tanya no longer at the centre of it, the scales fell from his eyes. He saw her for what she was: self-serving, grasping, motivated by a need for adoration. When he looked at her now, it was with astonishment that he had spent so long waiting for her, when she had no intention of loving him back.

Tanya began to sense it. She saw that she had slipped and been lost from his affections and she grew angry. Hence their long and uneasy history. Taking umbrage at his rejection, she satisfied herself with cruel teasing and jibes. He replied good naturedly, refusing to stoop to her level, but her cynical comments about the woman he loved was enough to test this resolve. He could not trust him himself to say a word as he watched her walk away.

"Edward, the elders are ready to receive you." A voice called him and a door swung open for him to enter. Edward entered the crystal hall, lit with the glow of the curtains which changed colours, shifting magically just as the night sky changes shades with the magnificent lights of the Aurora Borealis.

He took a place in front of them. They were seated in a semi-circle, nine or ten of them, males and females. He had known them all his life and they were like family to him. But he had to convince them to give up the Odin Stone as a bargaining tool for releasing Alice and Rose. It had lain hidden for decades. The trolls thought this ancient standing stone was long gone, ruined and turned to rubble by a feckless landowner. It was their best-kept secret, and Edward had to persuade them that this was its destiny – to be traded for the lives of two human girls.

The gathering of elders already knew what he had come to ask. They knew of the imprisonment of the two girls by the trolls in one of their knowes, where no human search party would ever find them. They understood that the Odin Stone was the one thing the trolls would want in exchange for two captives. They believed in its magic, often dancing in the moonlight around it, casting spells at its feet, linking their gnarled fingers through the strange hole it possessed in its centre. Edward could almost picture their avaricious expressions when he revealed that it still existed and it could be theirs again. He hoped that convincing the elders to say yes to his request was only a formality.

Before he could say a word, a door at the back of the room opened and a cloaked figure entered. The hood of the cloak was up, disguising the wearer's identity. The person walked to the last place in the semi-circle and waited a few seconds before lowering the hood.

There stood Tanya, her gossamer hair glowing, her eyes full of self-satisfied delight.

Edward sucked in his breath and willed himself not to give away his alarm.

The most senior elder rose and made a statement to Edward, most of which was a blur as he tried to work out why she was here, as one of the elders, one of the decision makers. He paid attention when he heard her name mentioned.

"… and so we welcome Tanya tae this meeting. She has invoked her right tae be here as the eldest daughter o' Alistair…"

There was a moment's quiet as all in the room bowed their head in a respectful silence. Alistair's recent death meant Tanya was taking his place as one of the elders, as was her right to do so by the laws of Finfolkaheem. Edward cursed the fact that she was six months older than him, which granted her the right to take this place. She smiled serenely at the group of people, but she looked at Edward with an expression that said _I was biding my time._

The next elder summarised the purpose of the meeting, and then the floor was given to Edward to state his case. With Tanya in control of his fate – and the fate of the two young women who were important to Bella – he found himself tongue-tied and muddled when he needed to be forceful and convincing. He spoke of how rescuing Alice and Rose should be their priority and how the trolls had committed a grave misdemeanour by breaking the treaty. He tried to convince them that revealing that the Odin Stone still existed would bring the trolls to agree to anything. The girls would be released. All this he tried to convey, with words that eluded him, leaving him shocked at his sudden lack of oratorial skill. But around the semi-circle he saw nods and one or two encouraging smiles. He dared not glance at Tanya.

He stopped speaking and drew breath. Silence followed.

A clear, high voice spoke. "Is it not true that the second girl hae been captured due tae the ignorance of this land girl ye are in tow wi'?" Tanya finished her question with a tilt of her head that suggested innocent interest in this inquiry.

Eleazar answered while Edward clenched and unclenched his fists in silent fury.

"Aye, the girl is new tae the island. Headstrong and determined. She set about to rescue one of the islanders, taken a wee while back. I think we can excuse her foolish plan when we consider her noble intentions."

Edward watched as Tanya scowled at this support for Bella. She tried again. "Why should we gie up the Odin Stone for this girl's reckless actions? The trolls desire it badly so we should not gie it up so easily. What about the next time we need to barter wi' them?"

Again Edward was saved from answering her. Maggie spoke in a low, calm voice. "I'll wager they will deny they have wilfully broken the treaty. They will claim the second girl was practically presented tae them and they are under no obligation tae hand her back. We need to make our offer irresistible. And frankly we have had nae need for the stone in decades now so why not tempt them wi' it. It is there tae be used."

For a third time Tanya opened her mouth, drawing her poisoned arrow back before letting it fly forward. "But we could walk awa' from this whole business. Let the trolls keep the human girls. Why should we get involved?"

This time Edward stepped forward. "Because we are already involved. Bella Swan needs us tae help her. We should no turn our backs on her, for I ne'er will. She came tae this island from far awa' and has grown tae love this place, as well as we dae. And I love her. As sure as the sun rises each morning, as sure as the fish dance in the sea, as sure as the birds wheel and dive in the air, I ken that I love her, and treasure her. She has a true soul, selfless and honourable. I will no stand by and let her blame hersel' for what has unfolded here. She has stepped into a world she kent nothing of until a few short weeks ago. Could ye step into her world and understand it all? Could you accept the mysteries and notions she has had to come tae terms wi'?"

The words had come easily, not choked inside him like a moment ago. He stared at Tanya who let her eyes flash back at him before allowing herself to glance along the line of others to see their reactions.

Edward was not accustomed to public declarations but it did not matter. This was the love each selkie hopes to find once in their life and he was announcing that he had found it. Had Tanya found hers? Perhaps her husband had been the soulmate that he believed Bella to be for him. Did she recognise the type of love he was talking about? Edward could only hope that she would feel some empathy for his commitment to do whatever Bella needed of him. He knew he would travel to the ends of world, gather up clouds and harness thunder, if that is what she needed.

Maggie broke the short silence. "It's time tae vote," she announced.

Eleazar was first in the line. "Aye," he said, nodding in the direction of Edward.

"Aye," echoed the second elder.

Edward began to exhale the breath he realised he was keeping locked up in his lungs. More 'aye's and more, until there was only Tanya left. Edward steeled himself, set his face to calm acceptance.

Tanya waited, allowing the tension in the room to soar. Edward stared at her, willing her to remember the friendship they once had, the love that had been easy between them once upon a time. Could she find it in her heart to give him what he wanted and needed when she had denied him so many times before?

"Aye" came her vote, in a voice filled with sorrow. Either she too recalled the journey through childhood they had taken together or perhaps she remembered the love she had felt for the human she had lived with for so many years. Her face gave little away as she gazed at him, a dour expression clouding her still youthful features. Edward decided that one day he might ask her as he nodded his head in grateful thanks and left for Bella's beach.

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A/N

dreich – dull, cold, misty weather

anither – another

tak - take

gie – give

ken – know

bonny – beautiful

dour - sullen

Hether Blether was regarded as one of Orkney's vanishing isles and a summer home to the Finfolk. It is thought to be further out than Eynhallow, which was won back by the islanders and its enchantment broken. However Hether Blether was never taken from the Finfolk.

Aurora Borealis – the Northern Lights. A natural lightshow seen in northern skies.

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This is the end now. Thank you so much for reading!


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